The Shibumi set is a minimalist game system created for experiments in automated game design. The idea was to create a system so constrained that its rule set could be fully defined, giving the computer the same access to the design space as a human inventor, yet still provide interesting games.

We've already asked designers to invent the best games they can for the system... soon it will be the computer's turn! More details here.

Hex, the genesis of almost all connection games, is a remarkable board game with some interesting mathematical properties.

Online Play

Richard Rognlie's gamerz.net is a play-by-email (PBeM) server that coordinates email play for a variety of games. Most of the games shown above are available for online play there, and many can be played through the server's graphical web interface.